Abstract
This article analyses the factors behind the paradoxical result of the Brazilian gun‐control referendum. It adopts a qualitative approach to explore the dissemination of ideologies surrounding crime, gun control and security. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with activists involved in the referendum's campaign. The results reveal that ideologically driven campaigns in a context of corruption scandals, high levels of violence and fear influenced the result. The neoliberal discourse of individual freedoms played a role, as did the phrasing of the referendum's question, fragile confidence in public institutions and unequal campaign funding and regulation.
Highlights
Between 1980 and 2010, the number of firearm homicide victims in Brazil rose by 346.5 percent while the population grew by 60.3 percent (Waiselfisz, 2013)
The phrasing of the referendum’s question on the ballot, fear of crime fuelled by the spread of firearms, highly ideologically driven campaigns, media influence and global powers such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) were the main factors to influence the referendum’s result
This article suggests that there is a need for more gun control
Summary
A number of studies focused on analysing the Brazilian gun control referendum and explaining its result. The notion that individual freedoms are guaranteed by freedom of the market and of trade (even the freedom to own and trade firearms with few or no regulations) is a chief feature of neoliberal thinking, and it has long directed the US position in relation to the rest of the world The freedom it symbolizes and personifies echoes the interests of private property owners, corporations and financial capital. Chevigny (2003) emphasizes that these developments have been accompanied by the politics of clientelism in Latin America and the populist ‘tough on crime’ ideology, which seek to bargain for votes in a context often driven by fear of crime These frameworks enable an understanding of how ideologies of crime, criminals and the criminal justice system as well as the role of the media and of global powers in the gun debate affected the referendum
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